Baseball Team’s Home Opener Is 3 Months After Fire

PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan minor league baseball team is set to hold its home opener three months after a fire destroyed part of the ballpark.

Fifth Third Ballpark near Grand Rapids is home to the West Michigan Whitecaps. Reconstruction efforts at the park are giving the home team a larger, relocated souvenir shop, a new administrative building with a rooftop grill deck and an expanded clubhouse.

The home opener for the single-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers is Tuesday against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. The Whitecaps say the first-base side of the ballpark is to be open. It sustained heavy fire damage.

Fire investigators have said that a trash container placed next to a space heater caused the fire. No one was hurt.